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| by Grey Fox Games |
The Simple Life
Confession time: I love the Harvest Moon games. There's something about this weird, cute, farming/life simulator that just strikes a chord with me. It's the unique balance between social interaction and the casual maintenance of crops and animals that can get me to spend HOURS on end in front of my Playstation.
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| Truly a masterpiece... |
I've looked for other farm themed games, specifically Agricola and Caverna, but they never worked for me. They just seemed overly complicated and fiddly. I just wanted to tenderly care for my crops and/or woo a local townsperson into becoming my spouse, and it just never felt the way I wanted it to. And they were SO LONG! SO LONG! It's hard enough getting a gaming group together for an hour and half game about slaying monsters, let alone a two to three hour game about FARMING! So, I eventually kind of gave up on finding a tabletop game that would properly scratch that Harvest Moon itch.
Then Grey Fox Games was kind enough to send me this tiny little farming game, Harvest Dice. It was a farming themed game that was supposed to play in 15 minutes... Well, Grey Fox Games, you officially have my attention...
Then Grey Fox Games was kind enough to send me this tiny little farming game, Harvest Dice. It was a farming themed game that was supposed to play in 15 minutes... Well, Grey Fox Games, you officially have my attention...
Old McMeeple Had a Farm...
Harvest Dice is a farming themed dice drafting roll and write style game for two to four players. Each die represents a type of crop, Red being Tomatoes, Orange being Carrots, and Green are Lettuce, and at the start of each round, the First Player rolls all nine Crop Dice, and then players take turns choosing whichever Crop they would like until there is only one Crop left.
Players then have the option to Plant that crop in their Field, which is shown on the player sheet below:
Your Field is a grid made up of three rows and columns, and you may only plant your Crops in the column that matches the number showing on your chosen Crop. For example, if you choose a Red Die (Tomato) with a result of a "6", you can only plant that Tomato in the "6" column. But that would be too easy if that were the only wrinkle in this game... To complicate things, each Crop after the first MUST be placed next to, NOT DIAGONALLY, but NEXT to the same Crop.
You got a Carrot already in the field and you want to plant another? Well, you better hope you have space directly above, below, or to the side of that Carrot otherwise you're not planting JACK. It's almost like the Crops have to move in a gang, and it's like a turf war. They don't want to caught without their backup!
Other than making things more difficult, this also makes both your drafting choices, and your initial placement of your Crops VITAL to your success in the game. If you are foolish enough to wall-in one of your Crops with nowhere to spread to, that's it! That Crop is pretty much done for you.
However, if you can't plant the Crops you chose, or if you simply don't want to, you can choose to feed that Crop to your Pig.
This adorable little pork-chop-to-be eats your unwanted Crops, and fills up a meter based on the value of the Crop fed to him. And when your Pig gets full enough, you get a special ability that lets you increase or decrease the value of any of your Crops you've chosen that Round.
Yep. Feed your pig enough, and he'll help you make your Crops better, and I think we all know why...
But it's more than that, too. The amount that you've fed your Pig also helps determine how many points your Pig is worth at the end of the game. So you when you draft a Crop, you may not have any more room in your "6" Column, but it'll make a good meal for Wilbur, and he'll go for an even higher bid at the fair. (Did you know that Prize-Winning Pigs at the Fair DON'T get to go live on a farm for the rest of their life? They just get killed an eaten like all the other animals!)
At the end of the Round, the type of Die that was left after all players finished drafting determines which type of Crop will increase in value, and then play continues like this until one of the players completely fills in their Field or a single Crop maxes out its value, and whoever has the most points wins.
Players then have the option to Plant that crop in their Field, which is shown on the player sheet below:
Your Field is a grid made up of three rows and columns, and you may only plant your Crops in the column that matches the number showing on your chosen Crop. For example, if you choose a Red Die (Tomato) with a result of a "6", you can only plant that Tomato in the "6" column. But that would be too easy if that were the only wrinkle in this game... To complicate things, each Crop after the first MUST be placed next to, NOT DIAGONALLY, but NEXT to the same Crop.
You got a Carrot already in the field and you want to plant another? Well, you better hope you have space directly above, below, or to the side of that Carrot otherwise you're not planting JACK. It's almost like the Crops have to move in a gang, and it's like a turf war. They don't want to caught without their backup!
Other than making things more difficult, this also makes both your drafting choices, and your initial placement of your Crops VITAL to your success in the game. If you are foolish enough to wall-in one of your Crops with nowhere to spread to, that's it! That Crop is pretty much done for you.
However, if you can't plant the Crops you chose, or if you simply don't want to, you can choose to feed that Crop to your Pig.
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| Included specifically for Richard... |
This adorable little pork-chop-to-be eats your unwanted Crops, and fills up a meter based on the value of the Crop fed to him. And when your Pig gets full enough, you get a special ability that lets you increase or decrease the value of any of your Crops you've chosen that Round.
Yep. Feed your pig enough, and he'll help you make your Crops better, and I think we all know why...
But it's more than that, too. The amount that you've fed your Pig also helps determine how many points your Pig is worth at the end of the game. So you when you draft a Crop, you may not have any more room in your "6" Column, but it'll make a good meal for Wilbur, and he'll go for an even higher bid at the fair. (Did you know that Prize-Winning Pigs at the Fair DON'T get to go live on a farm for the rest of their life? They just get killed an eaten like all the other animals!)
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| Charlotte's Web is nothing but LIES... |
At the end of the Round, the type of Die that was left after all players finished drafting determines which type of Crop will increase in value, and then play continues like this until one of the players completely fills in their Field or a single Crop maxes out its value, and whoever has the most points wins.
Cornucopia of Quality
So, yes, this is a roll and write, which means the game itself is meant to be semi-disposable, but that doesn't mean that Grey Fox Games skimped on the production value. The dice, while small, are of high quality and feel good in your hand, they include PLENTY of score sheets, and they even make sure to show you that the carrots, tomatoes, and lettuce can be represented by drawing a simple triangle, circle, or square if you don't fancy yourself an artist (though it does beg the question as to what messed up looking lettuce Grey Fox Games is used to).
My one complaint about the components would be that other than color, there is nothing to distinguish the dice apart from one another. This isn't really a big deal, but it can be a serious hindrance for colorblind gamers.
Buy It!, Try It!, or Fly It!
So, my gaming group is not one to mess around with some of the more abstract games. We typically like highly thematic games, such as Dragonfire or Imperial Assault, so I didn't necessarily have high hopes that they were going to like this game.
BUT...
It must have been ridiculous to see four 30 something men arguing over the use of Tomatoes. It was one of the most intense games I've ever played with them. Everyone was invested in EVERY turn, and we began to squabble like a bunch of kids fighting over a toy (I NEEDED that "6" Tomato, and you took it just so you could GIVE IT TO YOUR PIG! Unforgivable!).
That's a good sign.
Overall, Harvest Dice succeeds on so many levels. While it doesn't scratch the Marriage and Child Rearing aspect of Harvest Moon, it gives me raising Crops, Animals, and selling my wares.
It also gives me a riotously fun time in only about 20 minutes, and is a game that I would recommend to just about anyone.
The Verdict...?
BUY IT!
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